It seems like an eternity already since CNN headlines quoted George W. Bush: "American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger." It was March 20, 2003, and it has not been an eternity, only 5 years.

Historian, UCLA professor, and author of Worlds at War, Anthony Pagden has taken on the ambitious task of tracing this current East/West struggle to what he perceives to be the origin, a mere 2,500 years ago. In other words, our 5 long years of presence in Iraq is barely a crumb on the table of history. In 625 pages, Pagden dredges up every major East/West conflict dating back to the Greeks and Persians.

Read William Grimes’s New York Times Review on the book here, and read the first chapter of the book here.